The present invention relates to a planetary transmission for use in a vehicle drive train and more particularly relates to a transmission designed for receiving an input either directly from a prime mover or from a torque converter located between the prime mover and the transmission.
Heretofore, the advantages of providing planetary transmissions capable of being driven from the output of a torque converter for low speed, high torque operation and for being driven directly from the output of a prime mover for high speed, low torque operation have been known. However, the known transmissions have not been designed such as to minimize the loads transferred by the gears of the planetary sets thus resulting in gear and housing sizes being larger than necessary.